Policies for Educational Technology: A National, State, and Local Agenda.

Hezel, Richard T.

Since 1987 Hezel Associates has studied how each of the 50 states is or is not coordinating the planning of technology, especially the use of telecommunications for education and related activities. The study documented telecommunications activities of state departments of education and higher education, boards of regents, boards of vocational and technical education, state universities that have formed pockets of technology within states. Based on this research, it is recommended that policy issues concerning technology be formed at the same time that uses in educational technology are being developed. Some of the policy issues to be considered are: (1) the locus of planning, e.g., who establishes technological goals for the classroom; (2) economics and funding, specifically, different sources of funding, availability of funding, and the ways in which funds may be used; (3) technology planning, in which information about the availability and practicality of different technologies is considered; (4) state policy, which is particularly important because of the impact it has on agencies and institutions dependent on state funding; (5) governance and development of guidelines for educational technology; (6) system management, which determines the uses of, entrance into, and access to a system; (7) instructional programming; (8) faculty involvement in the planning and implementation of technologies; and (9) pedagogy and impact on teaching and learning. It is concluded that policy priorities can be established after consideration of these issues, and a coherent approach to educational technology may be developed. (20 references) (DB)